5 wonderful new books for Southern California readers

We hit the literary lottery this month here in Southern California with five winning books that could not be more different, or more wonderful.

The Sea Beast Takes a Lover: Stories by Michael Andreasen.

The title may have echoes of “The Shape of Water,” but this debut collection of stories by a University of California, Irvine MFA graduate is definitely not like anything you’ve seen before. Filled with fantastical fables full of futuristic moments, time travelers, mermaids and exploding children, the collection is playful and heartbreaking all at once. Reading these 11 stories, I kept trying to get my footing and predict what was coming, but Andreasen keeps the reader beautifully off balance.

Graffiti Palace by A.G. Lombardo

This debut novel is another unexpected wild ride, one with an ambitious and imaginative premise: “The Odyssey” as a journey across Los Angeles during the Watts Riots, 1965. That would seem to be enough to earn this book the adjective “extraordinary” but Lombardo’s language also earns that distinction. Consider this description of the abandoned cargo depot by L.A. Harbor where the story begins: “The dying light silhouettes towers of iron in rust’s glow: great stacks, ziggurats of steel cubes, shipping containers wedged and balanced on pier’s edge above the crimson diamonding of the Pacific.” Sounds like jazz and Lombardo’s plot has the same rhythmic urgency and inventiveness propelling the reader forward through protagonist Americo Monk’s dark night.

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

California native Guillory delivers a memorable meet cute when two strangers — Alexa and Drew — get stuck on an elevator together and Alexa ends up being Drew’s fake date for his ex’s wedding. The plot may sound like typical chick lit, but Guillory makes choices that create an interesting read. For one, they are a mixed-race couple: Alexa is black and Drew is white, and while it’s not the point of the story this provides the book some authentic moments. Guillory’s descriptions of the couple’s sex life do as well. Again, it’s not the point of the story, but Guillory doesn’t shy away from it, either. Ultimately, Guillory paints a more realistic relationship resulting in a more satisfying read.

Hiroshima Boy by Naomi Hirahara

“Hiroshima Boy” is the final appearance for Mas Arai, the protagonist of Altadena author Naomi Hirahara’s seven-book mystery series. Hirahara has crafted a fitting “finale” to this Edgar Award-winning series: Mas, the 85-year-old retired L.A. gardener and amateur detective, returns to his birthplace of Japan to deliver the ashes of his best friend to an island off of Hiroshima. Hirahara would seem to be telling the quiet story of a coming home, but it’s also a metaphorical ghost story — the ghost images of the Japan Mas remembers, the atomic bomb and its far-reaching shadow, Mas’s dead friend, and a young boy whose body Mas discovers during his visit. The subsequent investigation launches a compelling plot, but the heart of the book, where it transcends its genre, is Hirahara’s moving exploration of the ways people are haunted.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

True crime journalist and creator of TrueCrimeDiary.com, Michelle McNamara, wrote a book about the Golden State Killer (aka the Original Night Stalker), the elusive serial rapist and murderer who terrorized California in the 70s and 80s. McNamara didn’t just write a book, though; she was obsessed, poring over police and autopsy reports and researching clues for years, determined to solve the mystery of the killer’s identity. The investigation itself would be enough to satisfy true crime fans but it’s McNamara’s portrait of her own obsession that catapults this book to the next level and will likely earn it acclaim. The introduction by “Gone Girl” author Gillian Flynn and afterword by McNamara’s husband comedian Patton Oswalt are nods to the book’s sad history: it was completed posthumously, as McNamara passed away unexpectedly due to a mixture of prescription medications and an undiagnosed heart condition at the age of 46 while writing it.